This invention relates to a machine for handling pipe and other similar goods between a drilling rig and a pipe rack. It relates more particularly to a pipe handling machine adapted for use at onshore locations as well as to a machine that can be easily disassembled, transported between drilling rig sites, and reassembled at the new site.
This invention is an improvement over commonly assigned U.S. applications Ser. No. 192,495, filed Sept. 30, 1980, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,302, and Ser. No. 328,252, filed Dec. 7, 1981, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,872, and these applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Generally, the pipe handling machines disclosed in the above-incorporated applications include a stationary trough resting on a frame which is positioned on a catwalk. A cab for the operator's station is mounted at one end of the trough and a pair of masts at the other end. A movable trough has one end supported on the drilling rig floor and the other end adapted to be moved between the masts. A carriage means slides the pipe along the stationary trough and between the stationary and movable troughs. The stationary trough further has a tiltable dump trough portion at a middle portion thereof which moves the pipe laterally between the stationary trough and the racking arms attached to the sides of the stationary trough. Powered lug means moving along the racking arms move horizontal lengths of pipe between the dump trough and the pipe racks positioned adjacent to the stationary trough. Thus, the pipe can be automatically cycled between pipe racks and an elevated drilling rig floor.
It is desirable that these machines be easily assembled, disassembled and transported between drilling rig sites. Difficulties have been encountered in moving these heavy machines onto and off of the catwalks. Sometimes in the past, cranes would have to be brought in and used to move the machine or the machine would have to be dragged across the catwalk which could damage the machine, the catwalk, or both. Difficulties were also encountered in keeping the elongated machine aligned on the catwalk as it was being dragged along it.
The cab or operator's station mounted at the end of the stationary trough away from the drilling rig would have to be either completely disassembled or unbolted and physically moved off of the stationary trough requiring valuable time and equipment when the machine was to be moved. Also, if the control panel positioned in the cab were to be folded onto the stationary trough it would have to include flexible hydraulic hoses which would often break or become entangled.
The racking arms, as fully disclosed in the prior applications, comprise a pair of parallel elongated arms connected at their upper ends to the stationary trough and having lower ends resting on a surface adjacent the pipe racks. These fixed-length arms cannot accommodate varying heights of catwalks. The old systems also did not provide any means for efficiently loading the pipe onto various levels of a pipe rack, nor did they allow for the placement of pipe on a pipe rack positioned a distance from the pipe racking arms.